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Robert Parker is stepping down as editor in chief of the Wine Advocate, the newsletter that elevated him to become the world’s most influential wine critic. The change was reported by several news sources, including the Wall Street Journal.

Parker is also selling a “substantial interest” in the Advocate to an unnamed trio of Singapore investors, who will take over the publication’s financial operations. The newsletter, which claims 50,000 subscribers, will open a Singapore office, where Lisa Perrotti-Brown, a Master of Wine and one of Parker’s contributors, will assume the top editorial role. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Parker will remain a voice at the Advocate and will, according to a tweet he sent Monday, “continue to focus on Bordeaux, Rhone, [retrospective tastings of California wine] & the big picture.” The critic handed coverage of California releases last year to Antonio Galloni, one of his up-and-coming contributors.

Parker has telegraphed for years that he was worn out from years of tasting and travel, and Galloni told The Chronicle that Parker wanted to step back from what some viewed as a vicious cycle of winemakers crafting wines that pleased the critic’s palate, namely those in a deeply extracted and lavish style.

“He may have gotten to a point where he wanted to free people from feeling they had to make certain choices,” Galloni said at the time. “Maybe this is a catalyst to let people say, ‘I want to make the wine I want to make.’ ”

Parsing changesFrom there, the changes at the Advocate grow murkier. Initial reports said that the newsletter would begin taking advertising — although Parker, who styled himself after consumer advocate Ralph Nader, always insisted that he wouldn’t. “We envisage eventually allowing some advertising,” Perrotti-Brown told the Journal, but only from sponsors where there is absolutely no conflict of interest.”

Parker himself later clarified that, saying that the “Wine Advocate print edition will never take on ads,” although advertising for other luxury products and services might run on the publication’s online home, eRobertParker.com and its related bulletin boards, long a digital haunt for Parker’s most devoted fans.

Also unclear was just what form the Advocate, which has barely changed from its initial no-frills design in the 1970s, will take. Initially, Parker indicated that print versions might cease as soon as next year, but he later said that there were “no plans to eliminate the print edition,” and explained that a PDF version would be developed.

And in a statement to subscribers on eRobertParker, he insisted that he would retain a key role: “While rumors about me retiring have circulated for years, nothing could be further from the truth. I am still in this profession for the long-term as I remain the CEO and Chairman of the TWA board, and an owner.”

Future influence?The broad changes raise quite a number of questions, the foremost of which is: Will the Advocate continue to have the influence it once did? Parker himself remains a kingmaker for Bordeaux and the Rhone, two areas he will continue to cover. But a series of staff changes in recent years, which shifted more responsibility not only to Galloni but also to critics David Schildknecht and Neal Martin, and Perrotti-Brown herself, raised the question of the publication’s market power going forward.

The infusion of new talent has left the Advocate in its strongest editorial position in years. But retailers, who helped build Parker’s reputation by reprinting his scores in their catalogs and stores, have increasingly turned to a wider range of critical voices — and to their own expertise. There has long been speculation that Parker’s departure from his key role would shift the landscape of selling wine.

While Perrotti-Brown has been a valuable addition to the Advocate, deepening its expertise in Australian and New Zealand wines, her new role came as a surprise. Galloni’s recently stepped-up role had primed him as a likely evident successor to Parker, even prompting brief speculation that Galloni himself might buy the publication.

Certainly the shift of focus to Asia indicates that Parker’s one-time stronghold, the U.S. retail market, may no longer be the publication’s key focus going forward. It is a curious change given that most of the Advocate’s subscribers have been U.S.-based.

Among further changes planned: Perrotti-Brown is expected to hire a new correspondent, likely based in China, to cover Asian wines. And the publication’s longtime practice of paying its critics as independent contractors will change; most will be hired as full-time staff.

That last change is notable after the Advocate’s most recent departure, of longtime contributor Jay Miller, who retired last year amid a cloud of questions surrounding his coverage of Spain, where one of his associates was accused of taking money from wineries. (Miller has denied any wrongdoing.)

‘Young visionaries’
Parker, now 65, had little to say about his new business partners, although he described them to the Journal’s Lettie Teague as “young visionaries” in financial services and technology, and acknowledged the importance of the Asian market in the wine industry.

That has been reflected in Parker’s increasing travel to Asia in recent years, along with his hiring of Perrotti-Brown. Hong Kong, Singapore and other Asian markets have enjoyed a wine boom in the past decade, with top producers establishing offices — and auction houses recording record hauls.

Parker’s scores for a range of top wines, especially from Bordeaux and California, helped wineries to establish strong followings from an affluent Asian consumer base, particularly in the Chinese market.

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Jon Bonné is the wine editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, responsible for The Chronicle's wine and spirits coverage as well as the annual Top 100 Wines. He writes about wine, spirits and other libations throughout California and around the world.